Now, there are lots of cars at this price point that do all of the above. The list of cars that do all of the above and also make you grin when you start giving the tyres some pain on a B-road, though, is an awful lot shorter.

The vRS, I suppose, is all about breadth of ability. Let’s be real, though: it’s no Volkswagen Golf R on a country road. It feels heavier, less agile and slower. The damping isn’t as brilliantly resolved and the steering not quite as sharp.

What’s important, though, is that its chassis has enough substance about it that it doesn’t collapse huffily into a mess of understeer and comedy body roll on a twisty road. It holds itself together, which means you can have fun punting it along. You can also cover ground at a decent pace.

I don’t think that particular set of attributes will ever make you really fall for a car. That sort of car is like a good smartphone: you respect it because it makes your life easier.

I’ve been wondering if this car’s four-wheel-drive system is actually worthwhile. You’ll pay a £1490 premium over the front-wheel-drive model for it. Sometimes, I think the 4x4 vRS really is the better car, like when pulling out onto a fast-flowing, wet roundabout.

The two-wheel-drive car would either trigger its traction control and not go very far, or light up its front wheels and miss the gap in the traffic altogether. This model, though, leaps forward without any fuss or hesitation, so you need only a narrow gap in the flow of cars to get yourself moving again.

That, of course, is a very specific scenario. The rest of the time, I’m simply not aware the car is four-wheel drive. Several weeks ago, however, when the vRS had only recently arrived with me and the not-so-fearsome Beast from the East was due to cover much of the UK in a blanket of snow, I cancelled all prior arrangements and instead used the Skoda to get from Bristol to Heathrow airport.

The flight was an extremely important one that I absolutely couldn’t miss (two weeks in the sun, you see). As it happened, the snow didn’t actually arrive until the day after I flew, but the sense of security meant the journey was much less fraught than it might have been.

Of course, that sense of security might well have been a false one because the vRS was not on winter tyres. But it made me think: a four-wheel-drive Octavia vRS with winter rubber would be pretty much perfect for the UK in our colder months. It would be sure-footed on a wet or cold road, and it would cope with a decent snow dump too.

Love it:

EASY INFOTAINMENT Lots of car infotainment systems are baffling and tricky to navigate, but the Skoda’s is as clear as day. Its screen icons are usefully big too.

Loathe it:

INSISTENT WARNING When the windscreen washer fluid level is low, the warning chime goes off every few minutes. Very annoying.